Letters: John DeVantier has ‘skin in the game’

There are four candidates running for three seats on the Appleton Area School District board. I have studied the candidate surveys on all four. It appears to me that the most outstanding candidate is John DeVantier, for a number of reasons.

John will bring a parent’s perspective to the school board, which is currently underrepresented. If John were elected, he would be the only member of the school board who has children in the Appleton school system. John will have children in the Appleton school system until 2031, as the eldest of his three children is in first grade. In other words, John is the only candidate with “skin in the game,” and believes that we must do a better job of educating our children.

John believes that Appleton is an exceptional community and deserves to have an exceptional school system. The district’s overall average Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction report card score is 72 out of 100, a mediocre grade by most standards. Clearly, the present board members are not doing enough to deliver an exceptional school system and the board needs “new blood.” John will bring a fresh perspective to a school board with a current average tenure of 13 years.

John is an information technology professional with knowledge and experience in ever-changing technology that is so vital for today’s schools. John works for Oracle Corp., a global information technology hardware and software company.

We recently had a referendum to increase funding for various public school improvements. That tells me that the current school board is more reactive than proactive when it comes to budgeting. John would bring some much-needed dynamism to a school board that seems to have become complacent.

Brian Farmer,

Appleton

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